What is recorded here

Two tall crosses still stand beside the new church, marking a holy place that predates the written record and the Norman arrival. The old building vanished, but its font survives in the porch and its graveyard remains active at the eastern edge of Ballymore Eustace. What was lost is not forgotten; it is embedded in the ground, waiting to be read through stone rather than memory.

In a graveyard (KD029-011004-) at the E edge of Ballymore Eustace, a historic town (KD029-011001-). According to Bradley et al. (1986, vol. 1, 77-8), the first reference to a church occurs in 1192, although the presence two high crosses (KD029-011006- and KD029-011007-) and a cross slab (KD029-011009-) in the graveyard indicates the existence of a significant pre-Norman church site. The church was a prebend of St. Patrick’s cathedral in Dublin from before 1227 when it was valued at 20 marks. It is referred to as the ‘church of Blessed Mary of Ballymore’ in a document of 1529-34. The church was described as in good repair in the Royal Visitation of 1615, but had deteriorated by the time of Archbishops Bulkley’s Visitation in 1630. Few physical remains survive: fragments of two walls are visible to the E (L 1.8m; H 3m; T 1.05m) containing a splayed ope, and S (L 2m; H c. 1m; T 1.05m) of the present, 19th-century church. A font (KD029-011010-) in the porch of the 19th-century church presumably came from the medieval church, while a second font (KD029-011013-) in the graveyard is said to have come from Coghlanstown church (KD029-005001-). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 30 August 2013

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